News

Georgia 0 France 3: Super Saha sparks French

GEORGIA entered this game at the top of Group B by virtue of a 6-0 demolition of the Faroe Islands last month, but any notions of remaining at the summit were quickly dispelled as France stamped their superiority indelibly on proceedings and, in turn, the group. Any fears of a World Cup hangover lasted all of seven minutes, when Franck Ribery set up Florent Malouda to open the scoring and confirm his ascension to Zinedine Zidane’s slightly tarnished throne.

Zidane and Fabien Barthez were the only players who began the World Cup final in Berlin not to be present in Tbilisi, with Gregory Coupet taking over in goal around three months too late in the view of some, not least the Lyon goalkeeper himself. Louis Saha was the beneficiary of Zidane’s departure from the international stage and the Manchester United forward continued his impressive start to the season with a